Interference

[TheSeagull]

Has anyone here ever interfered with something natural? I keep seeing around the internet people who want to deter Sparrowhawks etc. It really angers me, if you feed one you feed them all. I personally only interfere if the animal in question is in danger from human or pet.

[Kayleigh]

I try not to interfere but sometimes in certain circumstances you have to intervene..
If a Sparowhawk wanted a meal from my garden then definitely not as it could mean life or death for the spawk.

[Jenny W]

This thread is probably going to descend into another fight as every controversial subject seems to! Sorry Seagull, not your fault, it just seems to be the way it is!

However, my take on it is that interfering with nature should be taken on a case by case basis as every situation is different and should be considered separately.

For example, I have no problem whatsoever in providing supplementary food for birds im my garden as I believe that this is only replacing the loss of natural food sources brought about be changes in farming methods. Without this supplementary source our avifauna would be depleted. However, I know some perople disagree with it. Same with providing nestboxes - replacing lost habitat, but some would disagree. Same with for example, protection for Schedule One breeding bird species. I've worked on projects to provide protection for such species (of course under the appropriate licence, with training and employed by conservation organisations). All species that would most likely disappear without such intervention. But again, some would disagree with such interference.

Conversely there are situations where I wouldn't interfere, but others would.

[Paul mabbott]

Humans interfere de facto with wildlife by changing the habitat, by modifying the climate, by producing unnatural materials and dumping them over the face of the planet.
Without 'civilised' human intervention, the numbers and distribution of other species would be very different. [At an early stage of development, of course, humans probably had minimal and local effect on population and community composition of other species.]
So we are interefering whether we intend to or not. I think what is being asked here is, 'Do we intervene on an individual basis to deter, deflect or kill particular animals (and plants?) in our neighbourhood?'.
Yes, I would certainly deter every grey squirrel in my area and I don't worry when I frighten wood pigeons off of the bird food - which is the bigger interference, providing food for some birds/mammals or scaring them off selectively?

[tom00_uk]

i intervened with nature the other day when out cycling, past a group of hunters that were after birds then a little down the track came across a farmed partridge with a shot wing that did not flee

so jumped off bike and rang its neck, it was then passed on to a hunter that was driving down the road as i had no where on me to keep the carcass until i was back at the gite to have it for supper

better to kill it in that situation than to let it suffer



would never stop an animal doing what comes naturally as its not my place

[wizzo]

I think a lot of us like to think we wouldn't intefere with nature unless it's 'selective' interference. For example putting down Rat poison or ant killer. Then there's fly spray, weed killers etc to name but a few.

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

Humans interfere de facto with wildlife by changing the habitat, by modifying the climate, by producing unnatural materials and dumping them over the face of the planet.
Without 'civilised' human intervention, the numbers and distribution of other species would be very different. [At an early stage of development, of course, humans probably had minimal and local effect on population and community composition of other species.]
So we are interefering whether we intend to or not. I think what is being asked here is, 'Do we intervene on an individual basis to deter, deflect or kill particular animals (and plants?) in our neighbourhood?'.
Yes, I would certainly deter every grey squirrel in my area and I don't worry when I frighten wood pigeons off of the bird food - which is the bigger interference, providing food for some birds/mammals or scaring them off selectively?

I was in full agreement with you ......
....
..until I read the last paragraph!!!

We do interfer with nature just by the way we live....logging, house building, agriculture etc etc. Conserving habitats is also an interference; if we just left habitats here they would eventually (for the most part) revert back to natural woodland.

Woul dlike to get more involved iwth this one but on a library computer (which is very slow!) and about to be booted off, so....!

[partyboy]

intrference should of course be as limited as possible,but i must agree with chris packham in that the alien grey sqirrel where inbedded in certain areas of our country should be embraced & our efforts directed at keeping them out of areas where they have not yet settled such as scotland and our outer islands

[Fritillary]

I notice some people are very selective with interference. Generally people put food to birds but if magpies arrive, they dont like them because "they are nasty birds that take chicks of other little birds" however, these people dont see that living where they live, they took land for these birds to chase insects and more other proies. The same for pigeons, rats, etc etc. a lot of people complain they are a plague but they survive because people waste a lot of food and people dont see that.

I think I intervene in exceptional cases with wild animals. One day I saved a vole from 3 cats . Considering cats are not natives, yes I took the little one. But if I see a bird chasing another one, I am not bothered at all. Finally they also need to eat. Since we take food from a supermarket (food already processed), sometimes we forget that an animal had to die in order to have the evening dinner.

[fairplay]

Tufftie,

What an ideal world to do no more to protect the habitats and let it all revert back to woodland, but where would we go to live - tree houses ?

Where would the Dartford Warbler go, or the Nightjars, Stone Curlews, Meadow Pipets and Skylarks or even the Silver Studded Blue Butterfly ?

If you stop cutting reedbeds, the reeds just collapse and build up a new layer of mulch each year until conditions are dry enough for pioneer trees to move in such as Alder and Willow, then you loose your Bitterns and Marsh Harriers.

Perhaps we should all live underground ?

Neil.